What to muse about today?

I so needed a laugh today. It’s been a hellish week. This sort of helped a bit, a giggle but not a big belly laugh:

Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein – ZURICH, Switzerland – What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.

“We’ve spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it’s not a problem,” Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.

Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.

Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. “It’s not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something,” he said.

Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC, doesn’t have an army.

Oops! Guess they didn’t mean that :)

I also realize that I didn’t post yesterday’s list – I was too busy with crap at work, and packing up the desk:

Peg

Rose

Marie

Not too long. Today’s so far is just the same:

Gloria

Tom

Sandy

Wilma (and it’s actually quite cool, as she and her husband do carriage rides for weddings and stuff)

Anita

Crystella

Tony

Jack (but these last two only because I was talked into a Smithwick’s with PFW, and probably the fastest I’ve ever had, as I was only 20 minutes from work to home)

Ok. This both intrigues me and scares me at the same time. “Are you smarter than a fifth-grader?” It is a FOX show after all…

PASADENA, California: Every parent’s nightmare â€” being exposed for not knowing what’s in your kid’s school textbook â€” will soon play out on national television.

Fox announced Saturday that it is making a new game show, “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” that will air sometime later this year, perhaps as early as the spring. Fifth graders are usually around ages 10 to 11.

Adults will compete in a quiz based on questions from elementary school textbooks. Actual elementary school students will be on hand as “experts” for the adults to consult with.

“While most game shows measure how smart you are, this is a show that will measure how dumb you are,” said Peter Liguori, Fox entertainment president.

Fox won a competition with other networks to buy the idea from Mark Burnett, executive producer of “Survivor,” perhaps because Liguori â€” not too modestly â€” said he was the only chief network television executive to answer all six questions from the show correctly.

The contestant has three chances to get help along the way: peeking at a kid’s answer, cheating off of a kid’s answer (meaning that the contestant has to accept the kid’s answer), and being saved by the kid (if the classmate answers correctly when the adult did not, the adult is saved, but this only can happen once).

I guess that makes it all ok. It’s not like we’re teaching the kids to cheat, is it? Or are we teaching them that it’s ok to not be smarter than a fifth-grader? <sigh>

Oh, and it’s on after American Idol. If I’m awake, you know where I’ll be at 9:30 tonite! Cross your fingers I can beat the fifth graders :)

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Today’s List (I think this is right, I didn’t take the piece of paper with me):

Well, all around crappy Friday. One meeting that was supposed to be only two hours ran to almost three. One meeting that should have been just 30 minutes ran to two. <sigh> When am I supposed to get work done? And on a Friday to boot??

Anyway, coworker got the Old Peculiar, which I gave to the boss-boss. He was touched. Said I didn’t need to do it, but I thought he would appreciate it. I didn’t do it for any medals or anything. Just to be nice. We did have a nice convo about ales and stuff, so, as I had come across it, thought he’d like it. I kept two bottles, so I could try it too :)

Lunch after the long almost three hour meeting was kinda fun. We barely got in to the cafeteria in time to actually *get* food, and were the only ones there. Just the five of us sitting talking about immigration, marriage, housework, boyfriends and stuff. Most of the men were very “anti-marriage” which was kinda funny, as they seem very happily married – multiple kids, long times. But at the end of lunch, one said that he really is very happy. He joked a bit about not doing it again – he is on his second, but the second has lasted MUCH longer than the first – as he found the right one. He said he got it right this time :)

Ok. A quickie for today. I did get to comment on the Flickr PhotoStream, and notate the ones that needed from the Winter Carnival last weekend.

Why didn’t they catch the break/caliper issue when they had my car for servicing? At least they’re giving me a discount.

Why is it being so difficult to not smoke? <sigh> More people in Trumbull, more people in Clinton, less resistance to refuse… I need my support back <sigh>

And I couldn’t not post today’s inquisition… it’s a doozy!

Michelle (from a store where we have a registry, she was concerned about seeing the date change. aw… sweet)

Sara

Liz (from the place where we’d like to have the reception… someone wants to put money down on the day we had hoped would be good)

Linda

Pat

Evan

Glen

Mark

Fred (not the P, but a former manager)

Dad (which makes much sense :) )

Kris

In good news today, I had been looking for my boss-boss’s favorite ale, which I had seen when I got the Hobgoblin the other week. I hadn’t gotten any then, but when I mentioned it to him, he said he hadn’t been able to find any. So, as I was driving by, I thought I’d pick up a bottle. Well, they didn’t have any more. I went to a few other stores on the way home, but no luck. I called a few places today, again, no luck. My coworker overheard me asking and suggested a store in New Haven, so I call there and they have a six pack :) WOO WOO! Success. It seemed as if the entire state of CT was out of this particular ale. So, she’s going to pick up a six (that I put on hold) tonight for me. I’ll give the boss-boss a bottle or two and have the rest for myself. She’s also getting a Belgian Raspberry beer for me as well. Yay!

So, I wasn’t so good yesterday, and finished up this morning. Yesterday was just busy busy busy! Looked around and it was 2 and I hadn’t had lunch. Just non-stop all day. The slowest it got basically was when I had to get into the dress and watch her bustle it up. Yeah, I know, the driving there was slow, but I was late :) Work kept me a bit longer than expected – who knew Ian (the boss) would be there?

So, anyway. The dress has had about a foot taken off the bottom. I actually didn’t trip over it, much, as I put it on. The seamstress however, forgot to hem the underskirt and crinoline :) Ooops! It will be done before I need it done :) Not that I know when I’ll need it. She was very understanding about that – and Irish herself to boot!

We figured out which necklace was better, sort of agreed (like it matters anyway) on the earings to go with it all. All the while commiserating about the stupid INS and how it’s good that we didn’t have 7/7/7 set as the day :) Kinda funny.

To be completed… with either some fun mentos stuff or a thought on mardi gras, or maybe even a dress fitting :0

2/21 – Ok. So I was too busy during the day, and fell asleep once I got home. Bad me.

Just because I can’t not have something, the eepybird people did it again… Mentos Dominos :)

They totally have too much time, but I can’t stop watching them… and the music is fun too :)

I had thought about musing about Pancake Day in the UK, while here its Mardi Gras, but that’s not quite topical any more, no more pancake ingredients needing to be used up before Lent… they should be gone by now :)

I was out in the cold yesterday – Chester Winter Carnival. Fun stuff. I’ve actually never seen a tractor parade before :)

My favorite bit, other than the chili and beer tasting, was the fire peformers. All dresssed up in “renaissance garb,” they had a funny MC, a bit of a problem with the falling snow, but that didn’t dampen the show. If you look closely (I’ll eventually put a note on) you can see the flames… on skin and in mouths :)

The beer at the tasting was Sam Adams’ White as well as a Cherry. White was nice, Cherry was a bit soda-like, sweet, fizzy. There was also two from Otter Creek – the ESB and the Copper Ale. The ESB – Extra Special Bitter – was nice, as was the Copper Ale, though the Copper was a bit heavy.

The chili was interesting and good as well. About 15 different entries, and we tasted them all! Just one or two were very spicy, but all had a pretty nice flavor. Interesting that most were different chili styles as well. There was a “mexican” one as well as a french attempt (which wasn’t bad at all).

I’ve gotten the pictures uploaded onto the Flickr stream, so they should be there…

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PS. There wasn’t an inquisition today! OMG! I did have to explain yesterday to my friend’s friends what was going on, but they don’t see me more than once a year or so. They’re allowed :)

Ok, so, in between sleeping and waking up last night, I had a weird dream. About a filling falling out. Usually my “teeth dreams” are linked to going to the dentist and are basically the Ren & Stimpy Tooth Beaver episode.

My dentist knows that I have nightmares before my appointments. She loves the Steve Martin Dentist part of Little Shop of Horrors. She hadn’t known about the Ren & Stimpy episode. A Steve Martin nightmare might be kinda fun, as long as I wasn’t the Bill Murray character :)

So, anyway this dream is about a filling falling out. In the dream, I wake up with the filling just gone. Somehow it fell out during the night. I know I won’t be able to get to the dentist to get it filled for a while. I wonder about putting gum in the hole (which of course feels YUGE), or what I can do until I can get to the dentist. I wonder if I’ll have the normal pre-dentist anxiety or not, if she can just pop a new filling in without drilling…

So, when I wake up, of course I have to check to see that all the fillings are in. I hate tooth dreams. I always wonder what stuff like this means… According to dreammoods, dreaming about the dentist:

Dentist – To dream that you are at the dentist, signifies periodic doubt over the sincerity and honor of some person. You may have some anxiety or fear of pain, but in the long run it will be for your own good.

I can’t seem to find anything specific about fillings falling out, but there are lots of things for actual TEETH falling out, and that’s not really what was in the dream.

Ok. There was success the other night in finding Hobgoblin Ale in the tiny state of Connecticut. Not a bad package store, one that I’ve passed numerous times but never went in. Pretty decent selection of “imported” ales and beers. Nice.

The guys that were working were also very nice and helpful. One of the guys remembered my call to see if they actually carried Hobgoblin, or if the website lied. I’ve already had two bottles from the six pack I brought. :)

So, I left with the six of Hobgoblin, a pint bottle of “Old Speckled Hen,” which I had over there, and a bottle of Holy Grail. How could I not? Just the bottle made me laugh. The guy who ended up helping me (not the one that answered the phone) said it was very good, very similar to the Hobgoblin.